AUGUSTA, Ga. – The Georgia Hospital Association has recognized Georgia Regents Medical Center as a leader in patient safety for 2012. The medical center was named to the GHA Chairman’s Circle for improving patient care based on national patient safety goals defined by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

“We’ve made tremendous improvements in three CMS areas,” said Linda Henderson, Director of Quality Management at Georgia Regents Health System. “We’ve reduced central line (catheter) infections and cut down on the number of patients being readmitted. In addition, we put procedures in place to help eliminate elective births before 39 weeks, except in emergencies. We’re always looking for ways to improve patient care and reduce unnecessary health care costs.”

Georgia Regents Medical Center is a participant in the GHA Healthcare Engagement Network, an initiative begun last year that is part of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service’s Partnership for Patients. GHA received federal funding to help Georgia hospitals reduce hospital-acquired conditions by 40 percent and readmissions by 20 percent by the end of 2013. CMS estimates achieving these goals could save 60,000 lives annually and $35 billion in health care costs.

To make the GHA Chairman’s Circle, hospitals had to demonstrate improvements in two of 10 CMS core measures.

The 478-bed Georgia Regents Medical Center is operated by Georgia Regents Health System, a not-for-profit corporation that manages the clinical operations associated with Georgia Regents University. The health system also includes a Critical Care Center, housing the region’s only Level I trauma center; the 154-bed Children’s Hospital of Georgia, providing the highest level of pediatric critical care and neonatal intensive care; and more than 80 outpatient clinics that provide primary and specialty care.